White House adds to legislative affairs team

With hopes of putting more pressure on Congress this year to act — or at least to drumming up more attention to the issues ahead of the midterms — President Barack Obama is continuing to staff up his legislative affairs office, with the hiring of Amy Rosenbaum as the deputy for his new legislative affairs director Katie Beirne Fallon.

Currently a senior policy adviser at SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Rosenbaum will start in the new job next Tuesday, a White House source said. Her title will be deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs.

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Technically, Rosenbaum replaces Lisa Konwinski, but the position — known as the “inside deputy” because the role is to manage the operation internally at the White House while Fallon is mostly on the Hill — has been vacant since Oct. 2011.

Rosenbaum will also coordinate with other agencies throughout the administration as the White House prepares a 2014 push centered on raising the minimum wage and issues of income inequality, as well as Obamacare implementation, Obama’s climate action plan and his education proposals.

She will “help make sure that members’ views on legislation in these areas are communicated internally,” the White House source said.

While Fallon’s background is among the Senate Democrats, Rosenbaum’s — besides an early stint at the DNC — has all come on the House side: she was policy director for then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), capping off 15 years on Pelosi’s staff, and preveiously worked for Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLaura (D-Conn.).

Pelosi expressed her excitement at Rosenbaum’s hiring, predicting she will “thrive” and be a “tremendous asset” to Obama.

“Amy was at the center of our efforts in the Majority to pass the Affordable Care Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, our efforts to increase energy independence and combat climate change, and address the needs of working families,” Pelosi said. “Both on my staff as policy director or during her work with George Miller on the Education and Workforce Committee, she demonstrated that she knows policy inside and out, and simply knows how to get things done.”

Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) echoed that praise.

“Amy’s experience as a senior staffer in the House Democratic leadership and her extensive relationships throughout our Caucus make her a great asset to the White House and to House Democrats, especially as we work together to advance our shared agenda of creating jobs and growing the middle class,” Hoyer said.